Nice Vibes & Good Times

September 20, 2016September 21, 2016

First day in Japan

Japan has always been on my list of places to go to and my dream has finally came true. This trip is one of the best experiences I’ve ever experienced and its a culture shock. It has changed my views and perspective on life. Mostly everyday when I was still staying in Sagamihara I would wake up and go downstairs to the BOSS vending machine or walk to the local Convenience store to grab a can of coffee and food before I would start a day of exploring. It was mind blowing every single day even if I walked on the same road everyday to get to the train station, there was always something new that I’ve never noticed.

While walking around the streets of Japan I was tripping over all the cars that we don’t get here in the US, The architecture of some of the homes and apartments made me wonder how do they live so close to each other with so little space? There were small Narrow streets and roads with no sidewalks, and Mom and Pops food spots almost everywhere. A lot of people rode bikes and scooters, and kids riding the train alone to school really set it off that I’m not in the US anymore and I was thousands of miles away from home on an island. It was real, I was really in Japan. Like I know that we have all these kind of things back at home but it was different here and honestly I’ve never walked or rode the train this much in my life, good thing I brought a pair of Nike Free runs or my feet would’ve been killing me.

This is my first installment of my trip and experience to Japan, I brought a few cameras with me and my walk around camera is my Canon EOS M that I purchased before the trip because its lightweight, small, compact and it shot video! I do have a lot of video footage that I will put up on my Youtube. I also brought my Nikon with me for photoshoots or coverage which I do have a lot of photos that I will post up. I want to share my trip and experience here on my blog for anyone to see what I did on my first trip to Japan and my first time out of the country. I want everyone to go to Japan and experience what I got to experience and enjoy Japan overall. I do plan on going back and who knows maybe it’ll be soon?

My first day in Japan I didn’t get there till around 5pm and Jason also known as @Garlido on IG met up with me at the Haneda airport where I found out my luggage which had all my clothes was left in San Francisco! I had a bad experience with my luggage this whole trip but at least I got it but it was a few days later….. Well I had all my camera gear and laptop on me so that stuff is way more important. We rode the train to Sagamihara where the Airbnb is at and Nathan also known as @nathanwohlander on IG was staying there with Jason. We chilled and waited for Ken to pick us up to cruise out to eat. It was a great feeling when ken picked us up and sitting on the left side of the car with no steering wheel in my face just hit me that I was really in japan.

While heading to the restaurant Ken wanted to take us we spotted a Skyline in the wild!

We pulled up to a parking lot and parked the car and this was the back entrance of the restaurant, already looked pretty damn cool.

This place is called The Demode Heaven, An American inspired restaurant.

I love the vibe that this place sets off and it was so chill and the food was so GOOD!

Kens friend came by and we headed out to Yokohama to meet up with some of Team Vertical. It was warm out and it was perfect for cruising, pretty much cruising on a warm summer night.

Ken and Garlido.

Tercel King Ken.

I’ve always wanted to see Ray’s Wagovan in person and it was even cooler to see it in person.

Tom’s IS is another car that I’ve wanted to see. I love this build and it just sits so perfect and is well built.

Abe-Chan Tercel is a Cali cruiser. He showed me his clock on his dash and it was adjusted to LA time and he was playing some west coast tunes which felt like I was back at home. This was my first taste of the USDM scene out here in Japan.

We then cruised out from the meeting spot to back to Sagamihara cause it was getting late. We drove past this gas station and saw some guys and their motorcycles. We pulled over to grab some shots and vide. So rad!

On the way home we randomly came across some cool old school Japanese cars parked.

That wraps it up for my first post on my Japan trip and this was just day 1! I sure do have plenty of more posts coming up and videos to go with that. I’m excited to share my trip with everyone and I took a lot of photos to share my experience in Japan.